Facilities

Cope Environmental Center is situated on 102 beautiful acres in Centerville, Indiana. The property features over three miles of hiking trails meandering through hardwood forests, grasslands, over 12 acres of prairie, three wetlands, and two ponds, and a significant collection of conifers. The Jim Cope Conifer Trail highlights over 50 different species of these conifers from around the world and was dedicated in 2002.

The property is used by hikers daily and is the outdoor classroom for thousands of school students each year. The trails also host hundreds of summer campers in June and July and provide a beautiful setting for community groups and events.

The property is, of course, managed with sustainability in mind. Areas not needing to be maintained for program purposes are often left to their natural beauty to avoid excessive fuel use and habitat destruction. Trails are maintained with mulch from area holiday trees chipped by Richmond Power and Light each spring!

We encourage you to explore our trails, dawn to dusk, everyday of the year! Trailheads are located at the 4910 Shoemaker Rd. entrance and the 1792 Airport Road entrance. Maps can be found inside the trailheads- hikers are encouraged to return the maps for reuse by future hikers.

Guides and Trail Maps:

CEC Trail Map (Special thanks to Gunty Atkins for his ongoing help with this map!)

Do you smell something burning?? – No worries! That’s just the CEC prairie on fire! On April 13th, CEC Facilities and Grounds Director Jeremy Mussoni (with a crew of great help) conducted a prescribed burn on the north prairie (about one acre). While the wind prevented us from completing the entire burn, we are making progress! Prescribed burns promote healthy plant growth, germination, and invasive control. Read more about reasons for prescribed burns here. Click here for progressive pictures taken weekly of the burn site. You’ll be surprised how quickly the charred grounds becomes green!

Birds, birds, everywhere! - Thanks to the generosity of a CEC member and volunteer, we are now featuring a new webcam with views of two CEC feeders! If you would like to keep an eye on these little guys, email Alison for the username and password to get to access the camera. We have been enjoying lots of great birds including Nuthatches, Titmice, White-throated Sparrows, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and much more